I read two articles about our Fayette Chamber of Commerce (“FCOC”) backing the 2012 Regional T-SPLOST plan. One was in the AJC, and consisted of a short paragraph in its Metro Section on June 23rd, and the other was in another paper of the same date.
The second article was a half page long, and it covered the same subject. It was only identified as the FCOC’s conclusion.
I believe any publications which specifically focus on a forthcoming controversial issue should be identified either by classification as advertisement, or signed by the writer. The second publication, not signed came across to me as a mixture of the writer’s opinion and what actually happened. It was simply unclear as to who was saying what.
It was difficult for me to determine how to classify the second article. This was because it was not identified other than the findings of the FCOC. It was also difficult to determine whether the publisher was trying to endorse the T-SPLOST or merely to summarize the conclusions of the FCOC.
This was because I found repeated usage of the words “our” and “we” without quotation marks. To me, the article appeared to be a hodgepodge of FCOC findings and personal writer’s opinions.
For instance, one paragraph stated that the FCOC voted to support the upcoming referendum. The next paragraph stated without quotes “Clearly, there is a strong desire from business leadership to insure (sic) our county and our region has a well-functioning transportation infrastructure to keep our quality of life positive and growing.”
Who made that conclusion?
In the last paragraph, the writer creates the appearance of a making a personal conclusion, stating “the time to act and show leadership is now.” Next, the writer states (I presume for support), “The FCOC believes that supporting the referendum, with its positive return on investment for our community, is in the best short- and long-term interest of the businesses and the citizens of Fayette County.”
This article was not the first of its kind. A few weeks ago, the same newspaper published a letter which appeared to be a campaign publication by [a commissioner running for reelection]. It was not classified as campaign, political, or advertisement, but it was told in the first person using the same type of personal pronouns one finds in a letter. It, too, was not signed by a writer, or classified under any category.
Several weeks ago, the Fayette County Issues Tea Party sponsored a T-SPLOST debate held in Fayetteville. Atlanta Regional Commission members debated Fayette County Commissioner Steve Brown and Fayette County Issues Tea Party co-founder Bob Ross. It played to a near capacity crowd, and when the debate was concluded, a huge majority of the attendees made a show of hands vote against the T-SPLOST.
The problem is that the public is being drowned in $8 million worth of SPLOST propaganda, according to Jim Galloway, editor of the Political Insider:
“More than 400 businesses, including most of metro Atlanta’s largest, have committed to turning out an extra 50,000 voters well-versed in the financial impact of traffic congestion. Their employees, in other words.”
The governor, the ARC, the Chamber of Commerce, and the hold-over commissioners and lobbyists want you to vote for the T-SPLOST. But once we do get into it, how do we refinance the partially funded projects when it expires in 10 years?
Steve Smithfield
Fayette County, Ga.
